“Texas will be early and it will be winner take all. Texas will be a major player in the 2016 Presidential primary contest,” Mackowiak explained.

Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill told KTRH he's thrilled that the changes have been made.

“There’s no reason that the largest Republican state in the country shouldn’t have a say in who our nominee is. In the past, by the time you got to Texas the primary was all but over,” Woodfill said. “Texas is now the largest big state to go early. We will make a difference.”

And now?

“We are going to be the new Iowa. Campaigns that have ignored us before will be here, shaking hands with our voters,” Woodfill stated. “This is good for the Republican party. It’s good for us locally. It brings a whole lot of energy to the process that we didn’t have before because we were irrelevant.”

And one possible 2016 candidate will be here soon. Woodfill says Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is scheduled to be in town on Saturday. Mackowiak says there will be more coming.

“Texas has been a place where you go only to raise money. Now you’re going to see candidates engaged in Texas early,” Mackowiak said.